What RAILSOFT calculates
RAILSOFT is software for the design of railings and their anchorage into concrete, covering the whole railing in a single file: from the geometry of the posts and the infill, through the code load, to the anchor in the concrete. It is intended for structural engineers, railing designers and manufacturers who see the work through on site.
What sets it apart is that it does not stop at checking the profile. It asks the code questions that set the load before the calculation even begins — the category of the railing, the use classification and climbability — and it closes the process with a quotation out of the same file.
Project details and a quick template
The project details module carries the engineer and the licence number, the revision and the date, the company for the report and the company logo, and the anchorage zone. The report comes out branded and carries the designer’s signature, rather than as an anonymous output.
Alongside it there is a quick template, which lets a calculation be opened from a defined starting point instead of entering every field from scratch — useful when a series of railings is being designed within the same project.
Railing geometry and the static system
The geometry is defined by the railing height h, the post spacing s, the type of infill, the position of the connection and the overall length. Alongside them the static system and the continuity are set, with a continuity factor k.
The position of the connection and the continuity factor are the two fields that actually determine the moment at the base of the post. A railing anchored to the top of the slab does not behave like a railing anchored to its side, and an end post does not behave like an intermediate post in a continuous run. RAILSOFT asks for these distinctions explicitly, and does not derive them from a single blanket assumption.
The post spacing s and the overall length tie the calculation of the single post to the railing as it will be installed, so that the same file describes a complete run and not one point along it.
Railing loads — SI 1227-8 and climbability, the "ladder effect"
The loads module defines the loading standard and the basis of load combination, and then the category of the railing to SI 1227-8 (the Israeli standard), the use classification, the characteristic load qk and the partial factor γQ, alongside the use and the minimum height required.
Within the same module sits a field that hardly appears in other tools: climbability — the "ladder effect". A railing whose infill can be climbed is a safety risk that does not arise from structural failure at all, and the standard addresses it. The tool raises the question at the design stage, while the infill can still be changed, and not at an inspection after installation.
The post profile and glass infill — SI 1099
The post profile module defines the section that carries. Where the infill is glass, it is designed to SI 1099 — the glazing standard that sets the required thickness according to the load condition and the way the glass is held. In this way the infill is not handled as an architectural detail but as a load-carrying element checked in its own right.
The anchor — AAS · EN 1992-4, and roof safety anchors — EN 795
The anchorage into concrete is calculated in the AAS engine to EN 1992-4. In addition the software deals with roof safety anchors to EN 795 and to the 2019 regulations, and with the handrail as a separate element.
This combination covers what actually happens on site: the same roof carries both a permanent railing and harness anchor points, and both systems go into the same concrete and the same report.
Pricing and results
RAILSOFT includes a pricing module that produces a quotation out of the same calculation. This is an unusual thing to find in design software, and it saves the step in which quantities are copied by hand from the calculation into the quotation — and with it that source of error. The quotation rests on the same geometry that was checked, so a change in the post spacing or in the profile carries through into the pricing in the same pass. The results module presents the profile selected, alongside the railing geometry, the loads to SI 1227-8, the infill to SI 1099 and the anchor to EN 1992-4, in a report carrying the engineer’s details and the company logo.